In light of recent interest in whether the Protestant Reformers interpreted Paul correctly, this edited volume enables a more careful reading of the Reformers themselves. Each chapter pairs a Reformer with a Pauline text and brings together historical theologians and biblical scholars to examine these Reformation-era readings of Paul's letters.

Every generation of Christian believers faces the challenge of proclaiming the gospel of Jesus Christ with integrity and in conformity to the teaching of the Scriptures. But what do the Scriptures teach with regard to the central message of the gospel? Were the Reformers correct to insist that the good news of God's gracious and free acceptance of guilty sinners, on the basis of the obedience and atoning sacrifice of Christ, lies at the heart of the gospel? Or are we to accept the ?new perspectives? on Paul's teaching, which have been advocated in recent years by those who have made a fresh study of the relevant historical sources? Since the new perspectives challenge some of the basic features of the traditional Protestant understanding of justification, they require careful study and thoughtful evaluation. Nothing less than the shape of the evangelical church's proclamation of the gospel today is at stake.

This book offers theological reading of contemporary Pauline scholarship, exploring how it deepens, broadens, enriches, and challenges traditional Protestant paradigms.

In debates surrounding the New Perspective on Paul, the sixteenth-century Protestant Reformers are often characterized as the apostle's misinterpreters-in-chief. In this book Stephen Chester challenges that conception with a careful and nuanced reading of the Reformers' Pauline exegesis. Examining the overall contours of Reformation exegesis of Paul, Chester contrasts the Reformers with their opponents and explores particular contributions made by such key figures as Luther, Melanchthon, and Calvin. He relates their insights to contemporary debates in Pauline theology about justification, union with Christ, and other central themes, arguing that their work remains a significant resource today. Published in the 500th anniversary year of the Protestant Reformation, Chester's Reading Paul with the Reformers reclaims a robust understanding of how the Reformers actually read the apostle Paul.

Ranks the Apostle Paul as "one of the most powerful and seminal minds of the first or any century," and argues that we can now sketch with confidence a new and more nuanced picture of Paul and the radical way in which his encounter with Jesus redefined his life, his mission and his expectations for a world made new in Christ. Reprint.

Timothy George reveals how the sixteenth century?s revolution in theological thinking was fueled by a fresh return to the Scriptures. He underlines several Reformers' unique engagement with the Bible and suggests what their legacy might mean for reading, praying and living out the Scriptures today.

The letters of Paul—especially the verse in Ephesians directing slaves to obey their masters—played an enormous role in promoting slavery and justifying it as a Christian practice. Yet despite this reality African Americans throughout history still utilized Paul extensively in their own work to protest and resist oppression, responding to his theology and teachings in numerous—often starkly divergent and liberative—ways. In the first book of its kind, Lisa Bowens takes a historical, theological, and biblical approach to explore interpretations of Paul within African American communities over the past few centuries. She surveys a wealth of primary sources from the early 1700s to the mid-twentieth century, including sermons, conversion stories, slave petitions, and autobiographies of ex-slaves, many of which introduce readers to previously unknown names in the history of New Testament interpretation. Along with their hermeneutical value, these texts also provide fresh documentation of Black religious life through wide swaths of American history. African American Readings of Paul promises to change the landscape of Pauline studies and fill an important gap in the rising field of reception history.